As determinantes da mortalidade evitável na União Europeia

ABSTRACT Framework. The relevance of disease prevention policies and the efficiency of health systems in Europe, as well as the socio-economic conditions characteristic of each country, influence the avoidable mortality rate. Objective. To estimate the explanatory factors of avoidable mortality (preventable and treatable) in the European Union, placing greater emphasis on the factors of social inequality. Method. Eurostat data were used for 29 European countries (26 belonging to the European Union and 3 outside this community) between the years 2011 and 2018. A linear regression was estimated for a panel of data with a robust fixed and random effects estimator and the standard errors were analyzed robustly. The dependent variables used were preventable mortality and treatable mortality. The independent variables used were health expenditures, as a percentage of GDP, percentage of people with higher education, unemployment rate, housing precariousness, Gini index, number of doctors PHTH, GDP per capita, risk of poverty, and material and social deprivation. Results. It was possible to demonstrate the influence of variables: percentage of people with higher education, unemployment rate, housing precariousness, and the number of doctors PHTH in the case of treatable mortality. Concerning preventable mortality, it was noticeable that the percentage of people with higher education, the precariousness of housing, and, finally, the unemployment rate present statistical significance as explanatory variables. It was not possible to demonstrate the effects of health expenditures and GDP per capita for both avoidable mortality rates. Conclusion. By carrying out the study and from the results obtained, it was possible to understand that the explanatory factors (socioeconomic) exert a greater influence on avoidable mortality. From a political point of view, measures in the field of education will tend to reduce this type of mortality. There are other explanatory factors such as cultural, historical, and political-institutional factors that can influence avoidable mortality, but which were not analyzed in this work.